


Bourgeoning

by DemonRomantic



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 00:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8600572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonRomantic/pseuds/DemonRomantic
Summary: Ciel begins to realize more about his own actions and how they affect those around him, while also remembering to be courteous to those closest to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler or any of the characters created by Yana Toboso. This work is meant to be enjoyed and possibly help you grow.

Bourgeoning  
By DemonRomantic

Ciel had wandered down into the kitchen on the hunt for chocolate. Of course, having Sebastian around, he could have just ordered the demon to fetch it for him, but he had become of the mind that he was far too dependent upon his butler to take care of such simple tasks, so he had crept down into the scullery to find his dessert himself. The truth was, that Sebastian had quite, though unintentionally, offended his master as of late by remarking upon his child-like nature once again. Although it was not the first time the demon had spoken of the apparent lack of maturity his young lord possessed, it was most certainly the last straw for Ciel Phantomhive, and he was not about to prove his butler right by requesting anything of him that he could obtain himself. With a quick glance about the quarters, Ciel saw that he was well alone, and entered. Having absolutely no idea of where to find said confections, he began to snoop through all the lower cupboards, turning up empty handed. 

“Blast, where does Sebastian put it?” Ciel mumbled, shutting the final cupboard below the counter. 

With a glance upwards, he saw the higher cabinets, and deduced that Sebastian would keep the supplies he worked with at a level he could easily reach without having to bend down. This however created a problem for the young lord, seeing as he could barely touch the handles to open the cupboard, which irritated him even more so. 

He exhaled in frustration while grabbing a stool from the corner. “Why must that bloody demon, be so tall?” 

Once Ciel was standing atop the counter, he pried open the cupboard doors and nearly fell backwards onto the hard tiling below, before a pair of strong arms caught him. The young earl was surprised to see Baldroy when he looked up.

“Young Master, are you alright!?” The cook asked setting him down swiftly. 

“I’m fine.” Ciel snapped, brushing himself off. “…Thank you for catching me, Bard.” 

“Yeah, of course. Is there something I can help you find?” 

“I was just after an afternoon snack, nothing to concern yourself with.” Ciel said, trying to slip away with a wave of his hand. He felt pretty embarrassed at having been caught.

“What are you saying, Young Master!? It’s my job to make sure your fed. I am the chef after all.” 

Ciel gave a small smile to his cook once he had reached the door. “Indeed, and you are doing an excellent job of serving me. If you hadn’t been there when you were, I would have injured myself. I’d say you’ve done enough for the day. Why don’t you take a break?” 

Baldroy was taken aback. “R-really? I’m not sure I should be slacking off so early in the day. If Sebastian caught me, I’d catch Hell for sure.”

Ciel called back over his shoulder as he exited the kitchen and continued down the hall. “Sebastian is not the master of this manor, so it is my word over his. Go ahead and take a break, and if he happens to find you lollygagging, just let him know that I said you could.” 

“Y-yes sir!” Bard cried after him.

There was no way that Ciel was about to eat whatever concoction Baldroy decided to serve him as a snack, and asking for the chocolate from him was just as bad as asking it from Sebastian. He decided that he was bored more than anything from sitting up in his office all day, so instead of returning to his work, he decided to go for a walk in the garden. Red and white roses adorned the hedges Ciel walked amongst, filling the chill November air with their scent. He could see his breath as he walked through the manicured flowers that somehow were hearty enough to survive the bitter cold. That is why he was so fond of the roses, they were a representation of how harsh the world could be to you, and yet you still had the strength to bloom proud and strong.   
While he was walking, he happened upon an odd indentation in the side of one of the immaculate hedges, that looked as if some sort of animal had worked its way through to the other side. He normally wouldn’t have dirtied himself by crawling through the bushes, but he thought that he could hear someone talking on the other side. 

“Finny? Is that you?” Ciel called through the leaves.

A surprised voice called back in a loud whisper. “Oh! Young Master, I didn’t know you were there.” Finny’s head popped out of the bush a moment later, leaves clinging to his hair. “I’m so sorry about the hedge, master. I promise I’ll fix it, but you must see this.” He gestured for Ciel to follow and the boy reluctantly got down on his hands and knees to see what all the fuss was about. 

Climbing through the hedge to the other side, Ciel stood and saw a small clearing that had been outlined with smooth boulders that only Finny could have placed there. The rocks were close enough together that there were no gaps between them and high enough that they were too tall to jump over. In the middle of the clearing was a baby fawn munching on the grass. Finny held up a finger to his mouth and looked at Ciel, whispering once again.

“She must have come through the gap in the hedge and gotten stuck. I wanted to make this place a surprise for you, Young Master. I had hoped to make it a birthday present, so it’s not quite done yet. The baby deer needs some help out though, so I’ve been trying to coax her all morning.” 

Ciel gazed at the little fawn who by now had become aware of their presence in the secret garden, and stared at them with big black eyes. It stood their frozen in fright, even though neither of them had done anything to cause it grief. 

“It’s okay, little one. We won’t hurt you.” Finny said, approaching the deer slowly. The action caused the fawn to through its head and back away.

“Wait, Finny.” Ciel said, catching at his gardener’s arm. “Leave it alone.”

“But, Young Master…” 

“She’s too afraid to move the way we want her to. The best we can do to get her out of here now is to make an opening wide enough that she can get through herself while we wait.” Ciel released Finny’s arm and turned to exit back through the opening in the hedge. Finny followed after him. “I want you to go and get some pruning shears so that we can widen this hole. After the fawn is out, you’ll have to seal this up with a door of some kind so that it doesn’t get trapped again. I’d hate for you to have to remove the stones after you took the time to put them there. Especially when your gift already looks so nice.”

“Young Master…” Finny said, choking up. 

“Now, now. That’s enough of your sniveling. We’d best hurry if we want to get it out before dinner.”

“Right away, young master!” Finny said, running off towards the manor.

Ciel waited by the opening, watching the deer through the gap while he sat with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around himself. The fawn was wandering around, perfectly calm, continuing to munch on the grass now that they had gone. Ciel smirked to himself. 

“Trapped in your own little world of contentment until something new comes along to upset that. How very ignorant. This world is full of dangers lurking just beyond the walls we put up to escape them. You can’t hide forever in a perfect little garden, sooner or later you have to accept the terrible things that lurk just outside. You may even find that you were wrong about some of things you thought were monsters…” Sebastian flicked across his mind, followed by his kidnappers. “I don’t blame you, though, things outside of your understanding can be scary at first, and not all of them turn out to be pleasant.” Ciel gripped at his arms, resting his chin on his knees. “It does help to have a place you can escape to, even if it is only inside your head.”

Finny’s footsteps trotted up the gravel to Ciel’s ears, and he stood to look at his gardener who had brought back two sets of tiny pruning clippers. “I’m sorry I don’t have any bigger ones, Young Master. Mister Sebastian took them after I accidentally cut all of the branches off one of the trees out front.”

Ciel wrapped his hand around one of the miniscule shears and smiled up at Finny. “It’s alright we only need these, and since there’s two of us we should get this done in no time.”

“Right!” Finny said.

The both of them snipped around the already present opening until it was large enough to allow Ciel to pass through without needing to crawl. Once it was done, they sat a good distance away watching the hole for the deer. They talked while they waited.

“It is a nice gift, Finny, thank you.” 

“N-not at all, Young Master. It’s the least I can do after you and Sebastian took me in and gave me such a lovely home. I figured you might like a place in the garden that you could go to and just be alone every once in a while… If you don’t mind me saying, sir, you do seem to enjoy your time away from people.”

Ciel looked at him, surprised. “Do I?”

“I-I mean… you know… just ‘cause you always seem to dislike company.” Finny put his hands up and shook them along with his head. “I don’t mean to offend you, Young Master! No, I’m completely wrong, aren’t I?! Please forgive me! It wasn’t my place to say such things!”

“No, you’re right.” Ciel said, calmly. Finny stopped his frantic apologies and looked at his master in surprise. “I don’t much care for the company of others. Especially when most of them do things that irritate me. I do suppose that makes me a bit hard to be around myself, but that’s just how I am. People just seem to be… different for some reason. They’re not like plants, or books, or games. They all have their own complicated emotions that you try to spend your entire life understanding, while also trying to understand your own. Everyday seems like there’s something new that you aren’t expecting, and yet that’s what we live for. That’s the most maddening thing about humans I suppose, we always seem to stay the same, yet the world we live in is constantly changing around us.”

Finny had gone quiet, thinking about his master’s words. “Yeah… I suppose your right.” 

The deer had finally crept out from the clearing, and was sniffing around the opening. It looked over at the two of them before bounding away somewhere beyond the roses. Ciel stood, extending a hand down to Finny as he had the night they’d met.

“Still, coming out from behind your own walls is good every once in a while. You never know what’s waiting on the other side.” 

Finny took his master’s hand, smiling, and getting to his feet. “Well, I better close up that hole now, so that the deer can’t get back in.”

Ciel shook his head. “I’ve changed my mind. I think I like it better this way. Now the deer can come and go as it pleases.”

“Are you sure, Young Master?” 

“Yes. After all, it’s such a lovely garden. Why not share it with as many as we can?” 

“R-right.” Finny smiled.

Later that evening, Ciel ate his dinner in silence while Sebastian and Mey-rin stood by, ready to beckon to their master’s whims. Ciel had been staring down at his plate so long, thinking to himself, that he had begun to notice just how nice the tableware had been arranged. Even though it was not necessary, and he had never done so before, Ciel decided to comment upon the set-up.   
“Mey-rin,” 

“Y-yes, Master. What is it?” The maid asked, flustered by the sudden break of the silence.

“This arrangement, did you set it?”

“Y-yes, I did indeed, sir.” 

“You have improved tremendously. It is very well done. I’d like to see more coordination like this in the future.” 

Mey-rin blushed like a beet. “Well, th-thank you, sir.”

“I’m finished eating. Sebastian, please draw my bath, and Mey-rin, see to the dishes if you would.” 

The both of them were taken slightly aback by the manners their master was displaying, put responded promptly. “Yes, sir.”

 

The warm water of the bath made Ciel feel heady, and he leaned back against the cold porcelain of the tub with his eyes’ half-shut. 

“You seem tired, Young Master.” Sebastian said, scrubbing gently at Ciel’s scalp. 

“It’s just the water, it’s too warm.” 

“Forgive me, sir. It seems that even after so many cleansings, I still cannot tell the proper temperature you prefer.”

“…It’s alright. It’s not your fault you can’t feel the same as we humans do.”

Sebastian paused in his scrubbing momentarily, then continued at a slower pace.

“What is it?” Ciel asked.

“No, it’s just that, you still seem to think that you and I are so different. At first, I believed that it was because you thought of yourself as being better and above your servants, but after watching the way you treat them, I came to understand that it was because I am a demon that you act so cold towards me.” Sebastian grabbed for the pitcher beside the tub and dumped its contents over Ciel’s head. “By the way, I think what you said about humans is true in all of what you said, except that you left out something crucial.”

Ciel turned to look at his butler with a scowl. “So, you were eavesdropping on Finny and I then, were you?”

“Not at all, Young Master. I was simply trying to locate you, as you were not in your study when I arrived with tea, but when I saw that you were with Finny, I returned to the manor. It just so happens that I found you while you were speaking your mind aloud.”

“So, what was it that I left out, then?” Ciel said, still looking back at the demon.  
Sebastian chuckled and leaned down to kiss his master softly on the lips. “You forgot to mention how beautiful that madness you have can be.” 

Ciel held on to Sebastian’s tie as the demon was about to pull away and brushed his lips against his butler’s before resting his forehead against the demons, his marked eye glowing violet. “You find beauty in our flaws?”

“It is not a flaw to feel, nor is it to be ever changing. I have lived long enough to know that without change, everything becomes stagnant as gray water.” Sebastian pulled the plug out of the drain for emphasis before getting to his feet. “The different colors of a human’s emotions are the spice for the soul, without them it becomes bland and tasteless.”

Ciel stood as Sebastian wrapped a towel around him and lifted him out of the water, drying him off before taking him back up into his arms and carrying him to his room. He set his master on the edge of the bed and used the towel to further dry his wet hair. 

“Shall I even bother with your nightshirt, or are you still angry at me?”

Ciel smirked. “I still haven’t heard an apology from you.”

Sebastian chuckled and leaned in to kiss Ciel, who made no move to protest. When the demon pulled away he grinned against his master’s mouth. “You really are one of the most sensitive human beings I’ve ever encountered… but I am sorry for offending you. I didn’t mean to make you upset, Ciel.” 

The young earl’s arms wrapped around his demon’s neck as he smiled. “I forgive you.” 

Sebastian removed his tie and began to unbutton his shirt as Ciel pulled him down onto the bed. The butler had already removed the garment when his master spoke again. “I feel that I must also apologize. You’re right, I haven’t been as kind to you because of what you are, and I am still a spoiled child. I depend on you so much that it’s actually caused me to detest you, in a way. It’s almost something akin to jealousy, I think. It’s like no matter how much I do for myself, I always need you anyway. It makes me feel inferior and I lash out by acting like I could care less whether or not you are by my side, but I do need you Sebastian. Not because I can’t take care of myself, but because I want you to always stand beside me. Because I do care about your feelings, even if I don’t show it.”

His words were cut off by eager lips that fit against his like puzzle pieces. Sebastian’s tongue wormed inside his mouth in savory traces, while his arms and legs wrapped around the demon, afraid of what might happen if he were to let go. Ciel was hauled up into Sebastian’s lap as he sat up on the mattress with his arms around his young lord.

“Apology accepted.” Sebastian whispered in a sultry voice that sent goosebumps all over Ciel’s skin. “You know, I would do anything for you. Anything for this delectable soul…” Sebastian murmured, kissing up Ciel’s chest.

Ciel couldn’t help but moan at the tender lips on his skin that traced up to his neck and nibbled his ear before whispering. “Because I love you, Ciel. We demons may not feel much, but that is something that our kind does share with yours. Although I don’t think it was intended as a way for the predator to fall in love with their prey.”

“Yet which of us is the master, here?” Ciel smirked as he was laid back against the sheets. 

Sebastian growled against his chest, and Ciel moaned again, his breaths becoming heavy. His words came out as a gasped whisper. “Sebastian…”

“What is it, Master?” Sebastian purred, not taking his lips off of the boy’s body. 

Ciel placed his hands underneath Sebastian’s chin and raised his face to look up at him. “I love you, Sebastian. Please, stay by my side, until the day that I die.”

Sebastian smiled, lifting himself up to tenderly caress his lips against the boy’s forehead. “I will stand by you forever, Ciel. No matter how you or the world may change.”

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this one. I know I enjoyed writing it. (P.S. I try to write all of my stories in one day, except for 'Law of the Bond' which took about three days to write because it was mostly a summary work.) I start my works off trying to tie in a little bit of love making to the story, in case you couldn't tell ;) or at least a little bit of affection, but my hope is always that it blends well in a believable way with the story. I'm going to say that this is my thank you for all of the kudos and hits on 'Growing Pains', which made it to 27 kudos and more than 600 hits! Thank you guys so much for reading my works, and I promise there's more where that came from. :)


End file.
